VA Rating Rules

RULE 1: The Bilateral Factor — A Hidden 10% Most Veterans Never Claim

If you have service-connected disabilities affecting both arms, both legs, or paired muscle groups — the VA is supposed to add a 10% bilateral factor to your combined rating before running the math.

How it works in practice: If you have a 20% right knee rating and a 10% left knee rating, those two combine to 28% normally. With the bilateral factor applied, the VA adds 10% of that 28%, bringing it to 30.8% — before the bilateral factor even feeds into your full combined rating.

Over a lifetime, that 10% addition at the right point in your math can mean the difference between rounding to 30% or 40%, or between 80% and 90%. Most veterans at 80–90% who have bilateral conditions never know this rule exists.

File VA Form 21-526EZ and specifically identify which conditions affect paired limbs. The bilateral factor must be claimed — the VA does not always apply it automatically.

RULE 2: Your Effective Date Can Go Back Further Than You Think

Most veterans assume their back pay starts from when they filed their claim. That is not always true.

If your original claim was denied, and you later win on appeal — your effective date in many cases goes back to the original denied claim date, not the appeal date. You could be owed years of back pay.

Additionally: if your condition was noted in your service treatment records at discharge but you did not file until years later — in some cases the VA must consider the date your condition first appeared in records as your effective date. This is called a CUE claim (Clear and Unmistakable Error) and it can unlock retroactive payments going back decades.

If you won a claim on appeal and were not paid from your original filing date — that gap is worth reviewing with an accredited VSO or attorney.

RULE 3: The 5-Year, 10-Year, and 20-Year Rating Protection Rules

The VA can propose to reduce a rating if a condition appears to have improved. But federal law protects you at specific milestones:

→ 5-year rule: If your rating has been in place for 5 years, the VA cannot reduce it unless improvement is shown across multiple exams over an extended period — not just one re-examination. → 10-year rule: After 10 years, the VA cannot sever service connection entirely — even if new evidence questions the original connection. They can still reduce the rating, but cannot remove the service connection. → 20-year rule: After 20 continuous years at a rating, the VA cannot reduce it below the level it has been held for 20 years — even with medical evidence of improvement.

These protections exist in federal regulations. Most veterans never know they have them until the VA sends a proposed reduction letter — at which point they have 60 days to respond. If you receive a VA proposed reduction letter, respond immediately with updated medical evidence. Do not ignore it.

RULE 4: The 100% Scheduler vs TDIU Income Trap

If you are currently on TDIU receiving the 100% pay rate — you have an income ceiling. Even if you are 100% P&T rated through VA, you will be denied SSDI if you are consistently earning more than $1,690 per month in 2026.

But here is the rule most TDIU veterans do not know: if your conditions have continued to worsen to where a schedular 100% is achievable through your combined ratings — upgrading from TDIU to schedular 100% eliminates the income cap entirely. Schedular 100% veterans can work with no income restrictions whatsoever.

If you are on TDIU and your conditions have gotten worse, not better — file for a rating increase on your primary conditions. If you reach 100% schedular, you keep the same pay and lose the income ceiling.

RULE 5: The "Continuity of Symptomatology" Rule for Gaps in Treatment

One of the most common VA denial arguments is: "The veteran had a gap in treatment, so the condition did not persist."

Federal case law — specifically Buchanan v. Nicholson — established that a veteran's own credible lay testimony about continuous symptoms can bridge a gap in medical records. You do not need a medical record for every year between service and your claim.

What this means practically: if you had PTSD symptoms for 15 years but only sought treatment in the last 3 — a well-written personal statement documenting your continuous symptoms throughout that period is legally valid evidence. The VA cannot simply dismiss it because a doctor did not document those years.

Write your personal statement specifically. Describe symptoms year by year if possible. Reference how they affected your work, your relationships, your sleep, your daily functioning. A strong personal statement under this rule has overturned denials that looked unwinnable on the medical record alone.

Which of these five rules did you already know — and which one are you learning today for the first time? Drop your number below.

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